[JNES 69 no. 1 (2010)] © 2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0022–2968–2010/6901–0002$10.00. 23 The Mesha Inscription and Iron Age II Water Systems* Jonathan Kaplan, Harvard University In the Mesha Inscription, King Mesha details extensive construction projects undertaken throughout Moab as a testimony to his royal power and the dominance of his patron deity Chemosh. 1 These monumental building projects include the construction of water systems at Baal-Meon and Dibon 2 (lines 9, 23–26). *I would like to thank Lawrence E. Stager and Peter B. Machin- ist for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. 1 For recent treatments of political and social organization in Moab during the time of Mesha see: N. Naʾaman, “King Mesha and the Foundation of the Moabite Monarchy,” IEJ 47 (1997): 83–92; R. W. Younker, “Moabite Social Structure,” BA 60 (1997): 237–48; Bruce Routledge, “The Politics of Mesha: Segmented Identities and State Formation in Iron Age Moab,” JESHO 43 (2000): 221–56; and Bruce Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Ar- chaeology (Philadelphia, 2004). 2 The Mesha Inscription speciies the location of these water systems at Dibon at Qarḥō. J. Andrew Dearman (“Historical Re- construction and the Mesha Inscription,” in Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab, ed. J. Andrew Dearman [Atlanta, 1989], 173) treats Qarḥō as “a suburb of Dibon and a royal administra- tive center.” Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager derive the word from the root qrḥ, which relates to baldness. Comparing Dibon to Jerusalem, they suggest that Qarḥō was the acropolis of the city rather than a suburb that contained the temple to Chemosh The nature of these water systems remains ambiguous in the inscription except for their distinction from pri- vate household cisterns (br; lines 24–25). Yigael Yadin understood the term ʾšwḥ in lines 9 and 23 as refer- ring to the type of monumental water systems present at Gibeon, Hazor, Gezer, and Megiddo. 3 Recently, and the ʾšwḥ (Life in Biblical Israel, Library of Ancient Israel, ed. Douglas A. Knight [Louisville, 2001], 128). Winnett correlates the Qarḥō to a bare hillock outside of the Iron Age II city wall where Mesha determined to build his royal quarters (A. D. Tushingham, The Excavations at Dibon (Dhībân) in Moab, The Third Campaign, 1952–53, AASOR 40 [New Haven, 1972], 24). Eveline J. Van Der Steer and Klass A. D. Smelik (“King Mesha and the Tribe of Di- bon,” JSOT 32 [2007]: 139–49) have recently argued that Qarḥō is actually the name of the Moabite capital and Dibon is the name of Mesha’s tribe, a name which only later came to be associated with the capital. 3 Yigael Yadin, “Excavations at Hazor, 1968–1969: Preliminary Communiqué,” IEJ 19 (1969): 18; note that S. Aḥituv vocalizes ʾšwḥ as ʾāšûaḥ in Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from the Period of the First Commonwealth and the Beginning of the Second Commonwealth (Hebrew, Philistine, Edomite, Moabite, Ammonite and Bileam Inscriptions) (in Hebrew), The Biblical Encyclopedia Library 7 (Jerusalem, 1992), 251. Because of the diiculties pre- sented in vocalizing Moabite, I refrain from using any vocalized form of ʾšwḥ herein.